My mission is to raise the consciousness of joyful living and I coach people on living their very best life, so I speak on all aspects of creating more joy in life whether it is through optimal health, financial prosperity, mindfulness, discovering your life purpose and the sense of belonging we feel when we have found our social circle that provides community and whole-heart connection. Knowing what contributes to our joy is one thing, yet what if we turn that around and ask ourselves what rob us of our joy? I know the things that steal my joy and having coached many others, I can tell you some of the top thieves are our relationship, thoughts and feelings about 1) the present moment, 2) expectations and 3) time. This is by no means an exhaustive list, yet if you will give me a moment to explain, you will see it covers many.

The Present Moment – think of a time when you were really present to another person and/or situation and how delicious it felt to soak in the moment with all your senses, it is absolutely magical, isn’t it? So why do we so often waste our precious moments rehashing our past mistakes and regrets or sometimes even worse, what we consider to be other people’s mistakes and error of their ways? And if we are not looking backwards, we often look to the future with great worry or fear of what may or may not happen. How silly is that? It takes us away from enjoying what is for the anxiety of something that may never come to pass. This is what makes meditation such a powerful tool. I am not saying it is easy, we all have the ‘monkey mind’ that jumps from one branch of thought to another thinking it is being helpful in reminding you of all the things you need to do or concern yourself with, yet with consistent practice, meditation can and will quiet the mind and provide you the ability to live in the now.

Expectations – when we have expectations that people should be or act differently than they are or that “things” should be different than they appear. What would happen if we whole-heartedly accepted things exactly as they are? I encourage you to see everything as divinely orchestrated to show, teach and accept life as it is with great gratitude and appreciation. When we trust that the Universe is always conspiring in our favor, it is much easier to accept that everything, even seemingly disappointing things, are really blessings in disguise. This is where a consistent gratitude practice really makes an impact. The more you can put yourself in the state of acceptance and curiosity, the more open we are to seeing the beauty in it all. Being able to reframe your past situations as perfectly designed because it brought you some other gift you were not expecting in life is the true blessing. And when times seem challenging, you can always look back in these journals and see for a fact, that all eventually turns out beautifully. If it is not beautiful yet, it means there is more to come.

Time – having a scarcity mentality of time and believing you should be somewhere else other than exactly where you are. This one is closely related to the previous two, yet still bears mention because it is so pervasive. I, along with many others, fall trap to thought of how I ‘should’ be further along than I currently am on a project, a relationship or financial goal. First off, where do these “shoulds” come from? We ‘should’ according to who or what standard? Evidently, we shouldn’t or we would, right? After years of not having enough time in my day to accomplish all I expected of myself, I finally decided to beat a different drum and instead of lamenting over the lack of time I had, I began telling myself a new story and my mantra became: I have all the time in the world and everything happens in divine order. Now doesn’t that feel better? And by the simple act of feeling better throughout my day about what was getting done, I am able to accomplish that much more. If you find yourself with consistent thoughts to the opposite of what you truly desire to create in your life, I highly recommend re-writing your story with affirmations or mantras that create that which you do desire.

So those are some of the top thieves that rob me of my joy in life, now it is your turn, what robs you of your joy? Leave your comments below so we may all learn from each others’ experiences. Namaste.